


A Successful mission

by ChocoNut



Series: Many ways to say I love you [24]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and feelings and confession, Season 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 16:18:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18594907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocoNut/pseuds/ChocoNut
Summary: While Winterfell burns after the long night, the survivors have taken refuge at Dragonstone. As the Army of the dead is fast heading south, Jaime and Brienne are once again sent to Cersei to persuade her to co-operate in the fight for the living. It might be a foolish move, but it is the last resort for the Northerners.When Cersei insults Brienne, Jaime decides to speak out.





	A Successful mission

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that the confession happens soon after the battle of WF and doesn't stretch out till King's Landing, but I decided to explore a different scenario just out of curiosity.

“Am I right in assuming you came here seeking my help?” Cersei began her interrogation, her tone full of spite, only this time the target of her wrath her brother instead of someone else. “Your dragon queen thinks there’s still room for negotiation?” she questioned, her eyes darting from Jaime to Brienne.

“You know what happened up North,” Jaime tried to reason with her. “Winterfell has been razed to the ground. I was there. We can’t beat the dead by ourselves, nor can you. They’re coming for you next, don’t you understand?”

Cersei was adamant. “My forces are good enough to wipe them out.” A crooked smile came upon her face, making her look far from the beauty she once was. “And what’s left of you,” she added, looking smug.

Jaime laughed mirthlessly. “Oh, you underestimate them, my sweet sister,” he said, now regretting wasting his time with her. “The only chance we have against them is if we join our forces.”

“You’re a fool to think I’d comply,” she refused him bluntly, piercing Brienne with green eyes that screamed hatred. “I must applaud your queen, though, of all the people she had, she had to choose you two,” she remarked.

“You’re right, I’m no good with negotiations. I failed the first time with you,” Jaime agreed. “Tyrion should’ve been an obvious candidate, but the queen seemed to think I’d have a better chance with you than our little brother. Brienne decided to accompany me--”

“This ugly cow you brought with you--”

His blood boiled at the insult directed at Brienne. “Cersei--”

“ _Your grace_ , not Cersei,” she corrected him at once. “Things aren’t the same between us anymore. I’m the queen, and you’re at my mercy.” She glared at Brienne. “I should’ve known about this woman. I saw it the day she brought you back to King’s Landing. She’s been after you, trying to snatch you away from me--”

“You will speak of her with respect--” Jaime fumed “-- _your grace_ ,” he added, his tone softer this time, but inside, he was burning.

“Very well,” Cersei went on in the same sweetly malicious tone. “Lady Brienne--”

“ _Ser_ ,” he corrected her. “It’s Ser Brienne now. She’s a knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” he announced, his chest swelling with pride when he stole a glance at the woman by his side.

“Is it?” Cersei mocked. “So your queen decided to knight her--”

“ _I_ did,” Jaime interrupted her again, “not the queen, you don’t need a ruler to--”

Cersei stopped him right there. “So the rumours I’ve heard are true.” She looked at Brienne in disdain. “They once used to call you the Kingslayer’s whore and I’m sure--”

“Shut your mouth, Cersei,” he shouted, knowing full well the consequences of his outburst. But he didn’t care. His eyes fell on Euron who stood by the Queen, a smug grin on his face. If anyone deserved to be called a whore, it was perhaps his sister who’d wasted no time in jumping into the next available man’s bed as soon as he’d left her.

Her expression could mean no good to either of them. “What is she to you, Ser Jaime?”

Jaime took a deep breath, looking down at first and then towards Brienne. “ _Everything,_ ” he said, putting his heart into that one word he managed to utter. “From being sworn enemies when we first met, we’ve come a long way.” He couldn’t help smiling when he met her eyes. “Ser Brienne’s my commander, one of the best I’ve served under and--”

“You’re serving under this woman?” Cersei taunted, the smirk back on her face. “I’d never imagined my brother, a renowned warrior, one of the best swordsmen and formidable commanders the country’s ever produced kneeling in front of a woman who was once his foe!”

“I’m none of that anymore,” he admitted with a sigh. “But I’m _much more_ \--” he paused, searching for the right words. “I’m a better man today, and that’s only because of the woman standing beside me--” he stopped speaking, taken in by her mesmerizing eyes.

“Go on,” Cersei prompted, her tone growing icier by the second. “I want to hear this fully, just to know how far my brother would go to make a fool of himself--”

But Jaime paid no heed to her words, lost in his admiration for his commander, gazing at her as he spoke. “She’s my best friend, the only person who wholeheartedly believed in my honour when the whole world called me the Kingslayer,” he said, never taking his eyes off her for even a second. Brienne blinked profusely, just as unsettled as she had been when he’d made her nervous by springing a surprise visit on her at the training yard during their first proper meeting at Winterfell. The blossoming colour on her cheeks encouraged him to go on. “She’s my conscience, constantly bringing out the good in me, inspiring me to do the right thing, never letting me waver--” his voice broke, and he was unable to go on.

His sister, however, was determined to find out more about the woman who had managed to capture her former lover’s heart. “What else?”

“I love her.” Jaime finally mustered the courage to speak the words, barely audible as he said them. “I did, for a long time, but I never realized it, not until a few days back,” he confessed.

Brienne stared at him, speechless, but when did she ever have to open her mouth for him to look into her heart? Her eyes were good enough for him, and they told him loudly and clearly that she loved him too. The moment he’d looked into her eyes after she’d stood up for him in front of Daenerys, he had known. The long and arduous journey North had made him understand the extent of his feelings for her, leaving him thinking for the first time about how deep their roots lay.

He stretched his hand to reach out for her fingers, touching them lightly. “We’ve both felt this for years, but never could act on it.” She still said nothing, but a smile of acceptance and acknowledgement lit up her face despite the hopeless situation they were in.

“And are you going to act on it now?” Cersei broke into their little private moment of joy. “My handsome brother to wed the ugliest woman in the world,” she insulted Brienne with relish. “I never thought I’d live to see this day.”

“Yes,” Jaime murmured, for the first time aching to follow his heart’s desire. “I would want to spend the rest of my life with the most _beautiful_ woman in the world because beauty, my dear sister--” he turned to Cersei again “--lies in the eyes of the beholder. And because you don’t see her the way I do, you’ll always find her ugly.”

Cersei glared at them for a few seconds. “Cuff them and throw them in the cells,” she ordered her men. “I’ll decide what to do with them in the morning.”

+++++

As they sat there leaning against the walls, Jaime was reminded of the last time he’d been down here, to free Tyrion. Brienne hadn’t spoken a word since the lengthy declaration of his love in front of Cersei, leaving Jaime slightly worried if he was mistaken about her feelings for him.

“You needn’t have said all that,” she said in a small voice, breaking the awkward silence that was beginning to frustrate him. “We might have had a chance of convincing her if you hadn’t jumped to my defence.”

Jaime shook his head, exhaling deeply. “I know my sister. We had no hope the minute she saw my face. She hates me more than Tyrion, more than you, more than anyone else in this whole damn world.”

Once more there was silence, the tension in the air nearly killing him this time.

“Why?” she asked after a while. She said nothing beyond that, but Jaime knew from her tone what she was referring to.

“Because every word I told Cersei is true,” he spoke his mind much more easily this time. “But you’ve said nothing, my lady,” he voiced his anxiety. “Am I wrong in assuming that--”

“No, you aren’t.” She smiled at him, a shy little smile that filled his heart with happiness. Even in the pale light, he could make out that she was blushing.

He knew. Her eyes never lied. She’d never looked at anyone else the way she looked at him. Elated, he couldn’t help smiling. Anyone who saw him grinning like an idiot might’ve mistaken him to be an madman, for he was a prisoner awaiting death at the hands of his sister.

“Brienne, I--” He stopped talking when the door swung open and in came Bronn.

“It’s you,” Jaime greeted him coldly. “Have you come to execute us?”

“I’m here to save your fookin’ ass,” he replied scathingly as he strode to Jaime and began uncuffing him.

“The last I knew, you were working for my sister.” Jaime eyed him suspiciously. “Why do you think I’d trust you?”

Bronn had now moved to Brienne and was working on her manacles. “Because you have no choice. Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind,” he barked when they both scrambled to their feet, rid of their constraints.

Jaime looked at Brienne the same time she looked at him and once again he was lost in her eyes.

“There’ll be time for that later,” Bronn hissed impatiently. “You know the way through the tunnels. There’s a boat waiting for you. Leave now before the Queensguard finds you.”

Brienne turned to the exit, but Jaime caught her hand. “Not before I do this,” he said, pulling her into his arms. He kissed her, slowly and sweetly, remembering every second of his time in Winterfell when he had desperately wanted to do this. She melted at his touch, her body relaxing into his. He wasted no time deepening the kiss when her lips parted slightly, inviting him in, the tenderness they began with now turning into desperation and burning desire as they gave themselves to each other.

“Apologies for ruining your moment of passion.” Bronn’s amused voice brought them back to their senses and they pulled apart. “While you should’ve done this years ago, this is not the time for it.”

Jaime nodded, a warm flush creeping up his neck. As he was about to lead Brienne out of the cells and into the tunnel he’d used to smuggle Tyrion out of this hell, Bronn called out to him.

“Wait a minute, Lannister.”

Jaime spun around.

“For god’s sake, make sure you fook her as soon as you reach Dragonstone.” Bronn grinned at Jaime first and then at Brienne who had turned bright red.

“Thanks for the valuable advice, Bronn,” Jaime said, his happiness so overwhelming that the bluntness of Bronn's suggestion failed to embarrass him.

“This mission was a failure,” Brienne lamented as they bolted up the staircase leading to their freedom. “And it’s all because of me, I never--”

Jaime stopped, grabbing her hand and pulling her to a halt. “No, it wasn’t,” he said softly, his lips finding hers again. “Not for you and me.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in two minds whether to write a concluding chapter for this or leave it as it is. While I mull over my confusion, do let me know if you liked this. Thank you for reading!


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